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Agile / DevOps: (_____) as CODE #DevOps

Infrastructure as Code – is a common term among developers, architects, and operational staff and the practice has evolved in response to demand for quality and efficiency in the industry.  Over the last decade many organizations have come to realize that the essence of Infrastructure as Code is to treat the configuration of systems the same way that software source code is treated.  Frequent code integration, automated builds, and integrated testing have resulted in stronger IT performance and therefore business value. Security as Code – An increase in security breaches across all industries has brought forward a similar concept, and that is to look at “Security as Code”.  This concept would include the usage of repeatable algorithms to integrate security checks with each code check.  This expands the scope of traditional “Continuous Integration” and automation.  Organizations realize that security is no longer a second thought and must be addressed at the front of the value s

The Customer Experience

We are all customers of someone right?  What was your last customer experience like?  Was it so good that it completely changed how you thought about the product or the organization you were receiving services from? On the other hand was the service you received so poor that you vowed never to use their products or services ever again.  We have all been in those situations. You may not have realized it, but how that interaction was designed can have a huge impact on the perception you, the customer, walk away with.  I recently read a series of articles in the September issue of Harvard Business Review magazine.  The entire series was titled “The Evolution of Design Thinking” - It’s no longer just for products. It speaks to how executives are using this approach to devise strategy and manage change.  I can’t tell you what an absolute must read this is for all.  It will make you take a second look at how you design, deliver and support the services to your customers. For me personally t

Designing a Service Design Package

I was recently asked what the compliance requirements, architectural constraints and interface requirements are in designing the service design package for a new app. The short answer is that the Service Design Package (SDP) would have ALL of the documents and information related to how the app was designed and developed including any policies or known compliance or other constraints.  The purpose of the SDP is to provide a living set of knowledge assets that can be passed around the lifecycle for use in each stage (e.g. deployment, operations, support, updating, etc.). For more information the the SDP please use this link:  http://www.itsmacademy.com/itil-sd/

Resilia - Cyber Resilience Best Practices

Operating under a constant threat of cyber attacks is the new normal for many organizations in today’s virtual business environment.  These attacks can come from anywhere, from anybody and at any time.  It is no longer a question of reacting to and then fixing the problem.  Today the question is “How do we prepare the entire organization to be prepared and vigilant to deal with cyber security threats each and every day. A defensive approach is no longer adequate.  A proactive strategy by cyber security teams with the appropriate expertise, capabilities and best practice processes and policies is an absolute must have in order to meet the challenge of recurring engagement with those whose intent is to harm the organization in some way. There must be well defined and documented processes to prevent, where possible, detect and respond with control and countermeasures as quickly as possible while predicting what will happen next.   The introduction of effective cyber resilience requir

Product Backlog + Process Backlog = Success!

Flexibility and agility are key to success and business performance.  Many Service providers have adopted Agile methods to ensure that they can meet demand for increasing changes in business requirements.  Product Backlogs are common and are generally understood; but what about Process Backlogs? Product Backlog – In the “Scrum Guide” Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland describe the Product Backlog as an ordered list of everything that might be needed in the product.  It is the single source of requirements for changes to be made to the product. The Product Owner is responsible for the Product Backlog, including its content, availability, and ordering.  A Product Backlog is never complete. The earliest development of it only lays out the initially known and best-understood requirements. The Product Backlog evolves as the product and the environment in which it will be used evolves. The Product Backlog is dynamic; it constantly changes to identify what the product needs to be app

Agile – My Product Backlog is Out of Control!

If a product backlog is growing faster than you deploy, if it cannot be prioritized properly, and business outcomes suffer, are your “Agile” efforts really working?   Agile software development is a group of software development methods in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams . It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, continuous improvement, and encourages rapid and flexible response to change. A broken product backlog is only one of many symptoms that something is broken. If there are bottlenecks in change, delivery and deployment than what real value can evolutionary and faster development bring to the business?  It is time to consider “Agile Service Management”. Agile Service Management ensures that agile principles and methods go beyond software development t o ensure the product backlog is in control and that we, as service providers, can meet the s

Change Proposals

When an organization is planning on a major change that will incur significant cost, risk, time and engagement of resources along with organizational impact, it is best practice to initiate this activity through the Service Portfolio process.  Before this new or significantly changed service is chartered, it is important that it be reviewed for how it may impact the short, medium and long term support of other services currently being delivered, the pool of limited resources that will be utilized for this undertaking and on the change schedule itself. The Change Proposal is used to communicate a high level description of the change and is normally submitted to Change Management for authorization.  Authorization, however, is not an approval for implementation, but is a measure to allow the service to be chartered so design activity on the service can begin. In some cases the proposal may be created by someone other than Portfolio Management, such as the PMO or SMO. This high le